The field of the invention is systems and methods for magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”). More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for magnetic resonance angiography (“MRA”) using a parallel transmission radio frequency (“RF”) system.
A key challenge in MRI is the presence of pulsation or other artifacts, which degrade image quality. Typically, a part of the body such as a blood vessel in one location pulsates and causes streaking or other imaging artifacts in other parts of the image that are remote from the blood vessel. While there are methods, such as flow compensation, that can reduce such artifacts, such methods are often encumbered with tradeoffs that are undesirable in many circumstances. For example, flow compensation techniques lengthen the echo time unfavorably, thereby changing the image contrast.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method for magnetic resonance imaging that was able to produce images of a subject in which flow-related image artifacts are substantially mitigated without requiring unfavorable flow-compensation techniques.